Tag Archives: #amwriting

Writing prompt – rig

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Oil rig at Clevedon Marine Lake. Photo by Judy Darley. Taken on New Year's Day 2024. Stormy skies above and swimmer just visible in foreground.As countless swimmers and spectators gathered at Clevedon Marine Lake on New Year’s Dave for the annual Big Dip, a vast structure drifted by. Like an industrial version of a child’s sandcastle, an oil rig floated past the morning’s revelries like a sea creature roused to curiosity by the shrieks. You can just see an uncommonly serene swimmer inside the pool’s perimeter.

These structures drill the seabed for the petroleum and gas that fuel our modern lives, and once decommissioned need to be dismantled, or become an art installation like Weston Super Mare’s See Monster.

What will be the fate of this one? Thousands of these edifices stand in seas around the globe. Can you devise a story or art work touching on the outcome for one? Could it be transformed into something beautiful that aids rather than harms marine life?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – dip

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The Sea is Still the Sea_by Judy Darley

The sea is still the sea even if it’s contained. Clevedon’s Marine Lake welcomes waves, brave swimmers and the occasional bobbing jellyfish. There’s even an annual New Year’s dip at 11am to embrace 2024 with a breathtaking adrenalin-boosting splash in aid of Marlens, the charity who manage and maintain the pool. Other charities are also getting involved and asking for donations from folks daring to join in.

On most winter’s days, however, you could be the only swimmer – just you, the saltwater and the sky.

Could you make this the setting for an unexpected meeting? Who might you encounter here? What peril could bond two people here?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – sparkle

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Sparkle street. Photo by Judy DarleyJPGWe recently moved to a new home in a different town and have been heartened by the volume of festive lights. It all feels very welcoming!

But imagine if January comes and goes, then February and March, and the Christmas lights remain?

What if it turns out we’ve accidentally moved to a town where it’s always Christmas? How will we fit in? And how will we retain our sanity in the face of festive year-round cheer?

The same premise works just as well for Halloween, Valentines’ Day or any number of seasonal celebrations. Can you turn this idea into an unnerving or comic tale?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – adrift

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Floating island in Avon River by Judy Darley

This floating island drifted past on the River Avon. It made me think of how species can travel from landmass to landmass thanks to flood, tide and chance.

I wonder what could have got caught up in this tangle. Might they have been peacefully dozing, only to wake up on their move to a new home?

I love how this castaway seems to float on a sea of clouds, suggesting a voyage not only between landmasses but between worlds.

Can you turn this into a story, or other creative work?

Could this be an opportunity to explore the growing plight of refugees and immigrants?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – pat a cat

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Cat graffiti at Bristol Harbour. Photo byy Judy Darley

Bristol is renowned for exceptional graffiti and for its particularly eccentric turns of phrase, which can also be heard across Somerset, Devon, Dorset and Cornwall, including ‘Pat a cat’, an urging to nuzzle a moggy… Ahem, why does that sound rude?

Quite simply, anywhere you stroll in Bristol away from the hectic centre, there’s a high chance you’ll meet a cat seemingly keen for a stroke

This gorgeous artwork appeared at Bristol harbour a while back, and is one of many giant feline portraits to pop up across the city in this style. The attitude of the cat makes me wonder if they’d welcome a pat, though.

The artist who created this work must have had to balance precariously over the murky water, or paint from a boat. What might their motivation have been? Part of me feels it could have been one of the many local cats with inky paws, tempting gullible humans to come in for a stroke and get a scratch!

Can you turn this into a tale?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – arch

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House arched over by a rainbow in a blue sky by Judy Darley

Rain and sunshine = a November full of rainbows, often showy-offy double ones arching enormously across the sky.

Walking in Bristol’s Totterdown area, I can track them up hills and around corners. This one rose ahead of me for quarter of a mile, with a twin rainbow sharpening and fading as light particles danced with clouds.

Then I turned a corner and saw it had morphed into a single impressive arch engulfing a home. It feels like a great scene to spur a piece of exquisite magic realism.

Who would you populate this house with? How could such a close encounter with a rainbow affect them?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – interloper

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Spider at RWA by Judy Darley on porcelain sculpture The Legacy of Shadows by Juli Bharucha MA

One of my favourite art exhibitions, the Annual Open Exhibition, is currently on at the RWA, Bristol. I’ve already visited twice, and there are masses of sculptures, paintings, and other creations that could prompt works of fiction.

There is, however, an unexpected, uncredited act of performance art taking place within one of the display cases.

Inside a case with a gorgeously delicate-looking white porcelain sculpture by Juli Bharucha MA titled The Legacy of Shadows, I spotted a teeny spider. A week later I returned, and the spider waved at me shyly.

It seems quite happy in there on its porcelain web, but definitely trapped. I can’t help wondering if it is a stowaway, a prisoner, or a really passionate fine art fan.

Can you weave this into a fantastical tale?

I’ve let assistant curator Olive know and she’s promised to launch a tiny rescue mission…

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – very small chairs

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I encountered these less-than half-sized chairs in a sort of storage room of a school that had given some of its spaces over to an art trail.

SmallChairs cr Judy Darley

Something about all those little seats waiting to be set down and put to use got my imagination whirring.

Imagine a school of the future where a population boom makes space so valuable child must sit in tiered rows at school. Who chooses who sets where? Is there an advantage to the comfort of ground level, or are the children set above, with better views and potentially boosted courage due to their daily climb, more likely to thrive?

What might they see from their perch?

Or perhaps these small chairs bring something else to mind. What can you weave from this sight?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – flap

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Red Admiral by Judy Darley

I never expected to see a red admiral butterfly flapping around my neighbourhood on a chilly November day. This one is clearly aware of its naval namesake, as it’s perched on the boat motif that adorns Bristol wheelie bins.

And yes, it is the butterfly that’s upside-down, and not the photo or the bin.

It’s an odd image, though, isn’t it? There are so many directions you could take this prompt in, from a climate fiction tale on butterfly sightings in November, and what this bodes for our planet, or a fable about a red admiral butterfly meeting a naval admiral, or even, taking into account the butterfly’s topsy-turvy posture, a piece revelling in the natural world’s eccentrics. It’s up to you! Take this idea, and fly with it.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writing prompt – snap

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Photographer, robin and squirrel_Photo by Judy Darley

A photographer’s lens can offer a precisely edited view of the world, and raise questions about why they chose to capture that particular scene rather than another, as well as what exists beyond that frame.

Look at any instagram feed and you’ll receive an artfully skewed impression of a life. What does the selection of shared images tell you about the photographer? Why is this the story they’ve chosen to tell? What might they have opted to leave out?

If you look at your own photos, what themes or preoccupations can you spot? What does this suggest?

Can you use this to inspire a tale?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.